Saturday, April 21, 2012

Chasing Madoff

“Chasing Madoff” (2011) should be named as
“Chasing Markopolos.” I mean no disrespect to Harry Markopolos, whose investigation
brought down Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, but the movie’s second-half feels as if
Madoff and SEC are chasing down Markopolos. Is this documentary about exposing
Madoff? Or is the film about a financial analyst, Markopolos? The film’s
second-half centers on Markopolos, who fears for his family’s well-being, and
believes that his family might is the target for a possible gangster-style shootout,
as a result of Markopolos going public with his highly-penetrating
investigative report on Bernie Madoff. Ignoring the film’s name as a minor
anomaly, the film truly stirs up a thought-provoking debate on the broken
financial system in the U.S, and the failures of the Securities Exchange
Commission (SEC). As such, “Chasing Madoff” is Markopolos’s lonesome and
dangerous journey to expose the truth behind the biggest hedge-fund fraud of
all time.

While working at Rampart Investment
Management, Markopolos discovered that one of the hedge funds managers
delivered gains of 1-2% every month; this hedge fund manager was Bernie Madoff.
Markopolos started analyzing financial data and returns for Madoff’s hedge fund,
and immediately concluded, in five minutes, that Madoff’s numbers don’t add up.
To be fully sure, the partners at Rampart asked Markopolos to reverse engineer
his analysis, and then design a product that can simulate Madoff’s returns. Even
after including information on Madoff’s stock trades, Markopolos’s product
could not produce returns like Madoff’s fund. Markopolos’s theory was
validated, but he along with the Rampart partners, faced a grave challenge on
how to disclose Madoff’s grand Ponzi scheme. After all, Madoff had friends in
high places and had backing from multi-millionaires. Who would believe them?

Considering the enormous magnitude of the
fraud, most of us, by now, would have heard of Bernie Madoff. He ran one of the
oldest financial securities firms on Wall Street, and through this firm, he ran
a hedge fund portfolio that eventually turned out to be a massive racket. By
the time, Madoff was indicted of the fraud--thanks to Markopolos’s report--the
investors lost a total estimated 65-billion dollars of assets. Some say this
number could be much higher, because Madoff has been running this scheme for
almost thirty years, dating back to the mid ‘70s. The interviews show us the
millionaire investors, who lost all their fortune by investing in Madoff’s
hedge fund. For investors hoping to retire in riches, suddenly find themselves
penniless, having to start everything from scratch. Hedge fund managers at
Rampart explain to us how Madoff was running a big Ponzi scheme, which even
Madoff could not fully understand. In simple words, a Ponzi scheme is like a
long DNA strand, where interconnections are hard to decode.

In an attempt to grab viewers’ attention,
filmmakers have juxtaposed ancillary images with the actual interviews. A few
of these images look dates and are shot in black-and-white, offering some
background on the origin of the SEC and the greed on Wall Street. Then, there
are digitally manipulated images, showing the complex nature of the fraud. As
if this was not enough, filmmakers have injected short segments, when Markopolos
discusses Madoff‘s case, and more specifically his anxieties of going to media
with his investigation and its impact on his family life. It is at this point
the layout of the documentary feels like a mafia-undercover story, setting movie’s
tone that is non-serious, deliberately sensational, and at times comical.
Compositionally, the film has a noir feel to it with the grainy, dimly lit
shots, consisting of closed spaces and dark shadows. Moreover, the film spends
a lot of time in unraveling Markopolos’s internal feelings that are mostly
extraneous from a storytelling perspective. As such, these segments could have
been shortened.

Rather than inserting extra images and short
segments, filmmakers could have interviewed other leading financial analysts
and economists, who would have provided their views on the technical nature of
the scam as well as the ramifications on the financial sector in the aftermath
of the fraud. Instead, the movie lays emphasis on four principal managers at Rampart,
and even though there is good information, their opinions only addresses their
personal, investigative journey in the Madoff’s case.

With the story of an astute financial analyst
Markopolos, “Chasing Madoff” makes its statement against the incompetency at
the SEC and the financial malpractice prevalent on Wall Street. The case
constructed by the film, however, merely probes the surface of the underlying
issue. It took Markopolos five minutes to conclude Madoff was running a fraud
scheme and another four hours to validate his claim. Sadly, Markopolos tips on
Madoff were unheard at the SEC, and it was almost after nine years that Madoff
was finally charged. The common man’s confidence with the government agency was
shattered, and instead of guarding the whistleblower, Markopolos was running
for his life from unforeseen threats.

Video:

“Chasing Madoff” is presented in an aspect
ratio of 1.78:1, and encoded using an AVC codec. The transfer looks good,
especially in the interview sequences. The close-ups are tight, with good
details. The detail and sharpness is consistent. However, there are scenes
where we get static images, and these shots are not as sharp as the actual
interviews. The night shots are deliberately grainy, and the black levels are
generally acceptable.

Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master track is driven by the
front channels. The dialogue is consistently clean and audible. In some scenes,
the rear channels are triggered. The film can also be viewed with English
subtitles.

Extras:

We get an audio commentary track with
director, Jeff Prosserman. Prosserman discusses the documentary’s unique style,
the script, and Markopolos’s story for the movie. There are also deleted
scenes, an alternate ending, and a trailer.

Parting
thoughts:

“Chasing Madoff” is a story of a
whistleblower, Harry Markopolos, and how he cracked Madoff’s grand Ponzi
scheme. Even at the risk of losing his life, Markopolos pursued Madoff’s case,
exposing the weaknesses in the system and highlighting the unflinching appetite
for money on Wall Street.

Because of the structural and pacing issues,
the film’s message never becomes effective or fully realized. Still, there are
good educational moments, and the movie, at least, needs to be watched for
Harry’s story.